Aid vessels spurned by Italy rescue more migrants

LAMPEDUSA, Italy — A private rescue ship that has remained at sea with 121 migrants after being denied permission to enter ports in two European countries rescued 39 more people Saturday, a Spanish aid group said, further complicating conditions on and off board.

The Open Arms made its latest rescue in international waters in the central Mediterranean Sea, where it has idled for nine days after picking up two other groups attempting to make the perilous crossing.

Italy and Malta both refused to allow the aid group’s ship into their ports after the Aug. 2 missions. Malta offered to let the ship disembark the 39 new passengers Saturday, but continued to reject the original 121, aid group founder Oscar Camps said.

“We cannot evacuate 39 people and tell the rest that they have to stay,” Camps said.

Malta’s proposal to take some of the rescued migrants while leaving the rest on the ship increased the tension on the ship, he said.

“So we told the Maltese authorities that if they cannot evacuate all of them, we will continue to wait for the definitive evacuation due to serious problems of security and to keep order on the boat,” Camps said.

The Maltese government said it was willing to take the 39 migrants because their boat was in the country’s designated search-and-rescue area and Malta had launched its own operation before the Open Arms reached it.

But the government said in a statement that the other 121 migrants had been picked up “in an area where Malta is neither responsible nor the competent coordinating authority.”

A new Italian law permits fines of up 1 million euros ($1.1 million) against the owners of rescue ships operated by nonprofit groups that enter Italy’s waters without permission.

The law is Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s most...